MR. CAMERON IMPARTS TO EVA HIS LAST WISHES. way of retorting; such an-an unpleasant wit, in fact THE SLAVES OF THE LAMP. A PARTY are sitting over their wine and desert. One peach, and one only, remains upon the table. It is very rich, very ripe, very luscious, very tempting. Everybody has eyed it-nobody has taken it. Everybody has offered it to his neighbour, and everybody's neighbour has politely declined it. There appears to be something greedy in seizing on the last morsel upon the table. Everybody, then, envies the peach, yet leaves it unappropriated upon the plate. Everybody appears careless of that about which everybody is interested. Everybody is greedy, but no one will own to it. The peach is the cause of all the white lies, the petty envy, the paltry covetousness, which even that respectable party-for they were all respectable, and not one of them cared a¦ pin's head about a peach in the abstract -could not help giving up a little corner of their breasts to as a passing place of shelter. Suddenly the lamp went out; and, as the room was left in darkness, six hands, simultaneously stretched out, encountered, each other in the dish: the whole party, with one united mind, had made one united effort to appropriate the peach. When the lamp was re-lighted, they were ashamed to look each other in the face. They felt how paltry they were; with what petty cowardice-with what shabby cunning-with what sneaking selfishness they had acted. 'Twas only burning oil which had kept them decent. They were slaves of the lamp. And are we not all, more or less, slaves of the lamp? Our neighbours' advantages are our peaches. Society and society's laws burn the restraining light; and mankind in general are the envious malcontents, who disclaim the fruit while they long for itwhose tongues refuse the morsel, while their teeth water for its ripeness. So many different men-so many different peaches. Crime is the ruffian's forbidden fruit-punishment the lamp which scares him from it. But, albeit we are no ruffians, we have all of us our peaches. The sparkle of a diamond, or the texture of a dress, may it not be a peach, which, were the lamp of conventional usage out, a lady might not scruple to avow she coveted? For mark, we do not speak of those who would actually snatch their fruit, were laws extinct, or opportunity convenient, but of those who are shamed by the conventional virtue, or, perhaps, the decent hypocrisy, of society, from avowing their longings-from speaking plain truths in plain words-from saying that they should like to have the peach. Jack and Gill are rival citizens, of credit and renown. But Jack is either more lucky or wise than Gill. He is made Lord Mayor, and rides in his gilded coach, with the same species of enlightened pleasure with which, thirty years before, he devoured gilded gingerbread. Well; is Gill envious? Not he. He has no He inclination for the peach. Not he. rather dislikes peaches on principle. When he says so, the open eyes of society gleam lamp-wise on him. He curses Jack in his secret heart. Why? Because there is no window in his breast, and the outside light illumines not the inner man. Mrs. Thomas Trot is a young wife, and she has got a young baby. You call, and the baby is produced from its cradle, like a jewel from its locket. It screams and kicks, like an obstreperous baby as it is. You do not want to be troubled with it. We will be charitable; we will suppose that you have a headache. You would like to rap out, "Confound the squalling brat!" but you don't; you murmur, in fondling accents, "The delicious baby!" Again you have declined the peach. length Mrs. Thomas Trot walks off, baby and all. Then do you indulge yourself. Stupid goose; to think all her goslings swans." Coward! your hand is in the dish, but not until the light, in the person of Mrs. Thomas Trot, has left the room. 66 At Alas! we are a terrible world of hypocrites. The peach is before is, and the light above us, and we render to virtue the homage we feel not. We are spies upon each other. We bind ourselves mutually over to be of good behaviour. We are afraid of each other; we keep up a mutual surveillance. Good and bad results spring from it. It keeps us out of mischief, but it creates fictitious mischief. There are times when it would be manly to take the peach out of the plate. EL DORADO OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. THE term El Dorado is commonly considered to have been the sovereignty teeming with precious metals, which had long been sought for in vain by Spanish adventurers. Their expeditions in quest of it were directed to the interior of the vast region lying between the Orinoco and the Amazon, or Guiana. The rocks were represented as impregnated with gold, the veins of which lay so near the surface, as to make it shine with a dazzling resplendency. The capital, Manoa, was said to consist of houses covered with plates of gold, and to be built upon a vast lake, named Parima, the sands of which were auriferous. fancies, aided by the imperfect vision of distant and dubious objects, might easily create that fabulous superstructure. We may judge of the brilliancy of these deceptious appearances from learning that the natives ascribed the lustre of the Magellanic clouds, or nebula of the southern hemisphere, to the bright reflections produced by them. There could not well be a more poetical exaggeration of the lustrous effects produced by the metallic hues of rocks of talc. These details, in which M. de Pons, a somewhat later traveller, who long resided in an official capacity in the neighbouring countries, fully concurs, in all probability point to the true origin of this remarkable fable. The well-known failure of Raleigh did not discourage other adventurers, who were found in quick succession; the last always flattering themselves with the hope that the discovery of El Dorado would ultimately be realized The term El Dorado was not, however, originally used to designate any particular place: it signified generally "the gilded," or "golden," and was variously applied. According to some, it was first used to denote a religious ceremony of the A PHILOSOPHER IN TROUBLE.-Some natives, in covering the anointed body with gold-dust. The whole of Guiana years before I was born a large whale was caught at the Nore, and towed up to Lonwas, on account of the above usages, don-bridge, the Lord Mayor having claimed sometimes designated by the term El it. When it had been at London-bridge Dorado; but the locality of the fable some little time the Government sent a which came to appropriate that name, notice to say the whale belonged to was successively assigned to different them. Upon which the Lord Mayor sent quarters of that vast region, and the answer, "Well, if the whale belongs to expeditions in search of it varied accord-you, I order you to remove it immediately The whale was ingly. The question, however, to be therefore towed down stream again to the from London-bridge." solved, is, whence arose the belief that a Isle of Dogs, below Greenwich. The late district so marvellously abundant with Mr. Clift, the energetic and talented asthe precious metals existed in the in-sistant of his great master, John Hunter, terior of Guiana?—and the solution appears to have been left to Humboldt. While exploring the countries upon the Upper Orinoco, he was informed that the portion of Eastern Guiana lying between the rivers Essequibo and Branco is "the classical soil of the Dorado of Parima." In the islets and rocks of mica, slate, and tale, which rise up within and around a lake adjoining the Parima river, reflecting from their shining surfaces the rays of an ardent sun, we have materials out of which to form that gorgeous capital, the temples and houses of which were overlaid with plates of beaten gold. With such elements to work upon, heated went down to see it. He found it on the shore, with its huge mouth propped open with poles. In his eagerness to examine the internal parts of the mouth, Mr. Clift stepped inside the mouth, between the This tongue is a huge spongy mass, and lower jaws, where the tongue is situated. being at that time exceedingly soft, from exposure to air, gave way like a bog; at the same time he slipped forwards toward the whale's gullet, nearly as far as he could go. Poor Mr. Clift was in a really dangerous predicament; he sank lower and lower into the substance of the tongue and gullet, till he nearly disappeared altogether. It was with great difficulty that a boat-hook was put in requisition, and the good little man hauled out of the whale's tongue. THE DESERT ISLE. (FROM THE GERMAN.) A GOOD and rich man, who had a number of slaves, determined to make one of them very happy. He therefore gave him his liberty, and enabled him to fit out a ship with costly goods for merchandise. "Go," said he, "and traffic with your goods in a foreign land, and may all success attend you." The slave departed, went on board his ship, and set sail; but scarcely had he been any time on the sea than a violent storm arose, and the ship struck against a rock and was wrecked. The costly goods sunk to the bottom of the sea, all the crew perished, and he himself with the greatest difficulty reached the shore of an island. Hungry, naked, and helpless, he penetrated into the interior of the island, and wept over his misfortune, when he beheld at some distance a lordly city, from whence there advanced towards him a crowd of inhabitants uttering loud shouts. "Hail to our king!" they exclaimed, and forthwith set him in a magnificent chariot, which conveyed him to the city. He entered the kingly palace, where they clothed him in purple, placed a diadem on his head, and made him mount a golden throne. Men of rank assembled round him, fell down on their knees before him, and swore in the name of the whole nation the oath of fealty. The new king thought at first that all this glory was but a dream, until the continuance of it left him no longer any reason for doubting the reality of the event. "I cannot comprehend," said he to himself, "what has bewitched the eyes of this extraordinary people, so as to make a half-starved stranger their king. They know not who I am, they ask not from whence I come, and yet set me on their throne! Truly they have strange customs in this land!". Such was the train of his thoughts, and at last he became so anxious to know the reason of his exaltation, that he resolved to question one of his courtiers, who seemed to him to be a wise man, as to the meaning of this baffling enigma. "Vizier," said he to him, "wherefore have you made me your king? How could you know that I was on your island? And what will at last become of me?" "Sire," replied the Vizier, "this island is inhabited by spirits. A long time ago they besought the Almighty to send them yearly a son of Adam to reign over them. The Almighty granted their request, and He causes a man to land on this island every year on this same day. The inhabitants hasten to him as you have seen, joyfully meet him, and acknowledge him as their sovereign; but his reign only lasts a year. This period having elapsed, and the appointed day arrived, the king is deprived of all his honours; he is stripped of his kingly apparel, and, raggedly and meanly clothed, he is borne away by force to the shore. There the inhabitants set him on board a ship which is constructed for this purpose, and he sails away for another island. This island is waste and desolate. He who a few days previous was a powerful king, arrives here miserably clothed, and finds neither subjects nor friends. No one sympathises with him, and he is doomed to lead a miserable and sorrowful life in this waste land if he has not wisely employed his year of royalty. After the exile of the old king, the people hurry to meet the new one, whom the providence of the Almighty sends each year without fail. They meet him in the usual manner, and welcome him with as much joy as the former one. This, sire, is the everlasting law of this kingdom, which no king can abolish during his reign.” "To none "Were any of my predecessors," asked the king further, "informed of the short duration of their grandeur ?" of them," replied the vizier, “ was this law unknown; but some allowed the splendour which surrounded their throne to dazzle them; they forgot the sorrowful future, and lived their year of royalty without wisdom. Others, intoxicated with the sweets of luxury, did not trust themselves to think of the desert island, for fear of embittering the delights of their present good fortune; and so, like drunken men, they reeled from one pleasure to another, till their year was up and they were cast into the ship. When the unlucky day came, they all began to mourn, and to deplore their delusion; but it was now too late, and they were irretrievably given up to the sad fate which awaited them, and which they had not striven to obviate when it was in their power to do so." This narration filled the king with dread: he shuddered at the fate of the former sovereigns, and longed to escape their doom. He reflected with horror, that already some weeks of this short year were past, and that he must hasten to employ to better advantage the days which remained. r "Wise Vizier," said he to the spirit, 'you have revealed to me my fate, and the short duration of my kingly authority; but, I pray you, tell me also what I must do to escape the miserable fate of my predecessors ?" The joyfully commenced their work. the immortality of his subjects, and made him their eternal king. At last the close of the year came nearer and nearer. The former kings had trembled at this moment, but this one looked towards it with earnest long. ings, for he was journeying to a land where he had, through his wisdom and activity, established for himself a lasting dwelling. The appointed day arrived. The king was seized in his palace, robbed of his diadem and kingly apparel, and "Sire," said the spirit, "reflect often placed on the ship, which conveyed him how that you came to this island naked to the land of his exile. Scarcely had and starving; for, in the same manner he set foot on the shores of the island you will leave it, never to return. There than the inhabitants hastened joyfully to is but one possible means by which you meet him, received him with great can obviate the great want which will honour, and, instead of a diadem of threaten you in the land of your exile; which the brightness lasted only a year, namely, by rendering that island fruitful, they decked his brow with a wreath of and peopling it with inhabitants. This never-fading flowers. The Almighty comis permitted by our law, and your sub-mended his wisdom. He granted him jects are so perfectly obedient to you, that they will go wherever you send them. Therefore, send a great number of labourers over, and let them change the waste plains into fruitful fields; build cities and storehouses, and furnish them with all the needful provisions; in one word, prepare for yourself a new kingdom, whose inhabitants shall receive you with much joy after your banishment. But hasten, let not a moment pass by unemployed, for the time is short, and the more you do towards the culture of your new abode so much the happier will your life there be. Think every morning that your year is up, and use your liberty like a wise fugitive, whose desire is to escape corruption. If you despise my advice, or delay, you will be lost, and long years of misery are your doom." The king was a wise man, and the speech of the spirit gave zest to his resolutions. He immediately sent a number of his subjects. They went, and The rich and beneficent man is God; the slave whom his Lord sent away is man at his birth; the island on which he landed is the world; the inhabitants who so joyfully met him are those parents who tend with solicitude the weeping and helpless infant. The vizier who forewarned him of the fate that awaited him, is Wisdom. The year of his reign represents the life of man; and the desert island to which he was carried off is the future world. The labourers whom he sent there are the good works which he performed in his lifetime; but the kings who went before him, without reflecting on the fate awaiting them, are those foolish men who occupy themselves solely with earthly joys, without thinking of the life after death. They are punished with eternal misery, because they appeared before the throne of the Almighty empty-handed. L. E. L. |